Community garden fulfills church outreach mission

Shane Stutzman raised more than $12,000 in funds and donated materials and spent two years creating what is now the Ranch Community Garden on land adjacent to the Beth-El Mennonite Church in Colorado Springs. Stutzman, a member of the congregation, said when the church relocated to its new building in 2005, it had surplus lan...

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By Candace Krebs

LA Junta Tribune - La Junta, CO

By Candace Krebs

Posted Oct. 1, 2012 at 8:45 AM
Updated Oct 1, 2012 at 4:05 PM

By Candace Krebs

Posted Oct. 1, 2012 at 8:45 AM
Updated Oct 1, 2012 at 4:05 PM

Colorado Springs, Colo.

For Shane Stutzman, starting a garden was a ministry and a mission.
“I grew up on a farm in Idaho; I’ve always been around farming and growing things,” said the computer technology specialist who gardens and raises chickens in his backyard with his wife and their two small children.
The inner farmer came out when he was brainstorming a community service project for his church. He realized many people no longer have the option of growing their own food.
“We can fill a need by providing an opportunity for people to grow something,” he recalled thinking at the time.
Stutzman raised more than $12,000 in funds and donated materials and spent two years creating what is now the Ranch Community Garden on land adjacent to the Beth-El Mennonite Church in Colorado Springs. Stutzman, a member of the congregation, said when the church relocated to its new building in 2005, it had surplus land, some of which was made available to the community for trail access. He convinced the congregation to allocate 11,000 square feet of open space between Union Boulevard and a heavily forested hill for new gardening space.
With the popularity of healthy, fresh, locally grown produce, Stutzman saw an avenue for sharing common ground with the community, he said. With an estimated 450 apartment residences within walking distance, a garden was a way to offer a unique amenity that would also bring people together.
The city’s resident expert on community gardens, Larry Stebbins, executive director of Pikes Peak Urban Gardens, said a handful of churches around town have started community garden projects but he expects many more to jump on the idea.
Churches often have property that is being underutilized, he pointed out.
“I think they see the need to provide food for people, but they also understand the concept of that parable about giving a handout and you feed people for a day versus if you teach them to fish you feed them for a lifetime,” he said.
He added that while churches used to be the center of their local neighborhoods, people are now more apt to travel across town to attend religious services, diminishing those neighborly connections.
Churches do have a unique capacity to restore those fraying threads by starting gardens, Stebbins said. “They set up a social network that is very welcoming,” he said. “I’m seeing people rub shoulders who otherwise would have never met each other. That is neat. I’m eager to work with more churches.”
Pikes Peak Urban Gardens has helped boost the number of community gardens to over a dozen in just a few years, but Stutzman said availability is still short of meeting demand. He compares Colorado Springs to Denver, which now has more than a hundred gardens. He knows at least one person locally who waited four years to get a gardening bed.
“Most of the community gardens are full,” he said. “We definitely have a need for more of them. But besides parks, there aren’t a lot of other options for where to put them.”
Unique garden design
With around 120 beds, Stutzman’s Garden Ranch site had no shortage of takers. Production from 12 of the plots is designated for the local food bank, a deliberate choice that is loosely based on the Garden Writers Association’s Plant a Row for the Hungry Campaign. With demand for food assistance growing by 70 percent in just a few short years, the association encourages gardeners to plant an extra row to give to charity; the group claims that since 1995 18 million pounds of produce have been distributed to food pantries “with no government subsidy or bureaucratic red tape” involved.
One unique feature of Stutzman’s garden is the sophisticated drip irrigation system embedded under it. The cost was considerable, with six volunteers devoting six days straight to installing it. But Stutzman says as a result gardeners only need to visit once or twice a week at a minimum to hand water from hydrants also installed on-site.
“The system automatically runs once a day, but there is a shut-off value at each bed,” he explained. He has his own drip system at home and considers it the most efficient way to water a garden. “We expect to save a lot of money in the long term with water costs increasing every year,” he added.
He also drew on his own gardening experience to design and build 4-by-8-foot manageable raised beds that could be easily planted, harvested and maneuvered around. “I wanted to create a grid to maximize our use of the space,” he said.
A board of directors oversees the garden, and meetings are held once a month. The entire space is perimeter-fenced. Plot holders, who pay $15 a year along with a $10 deposit, can enter at any time using an electronic keypad code.
Stutzman’s next goal is to launch a composting project, using a community-wide leaf collection this fall, while also collecting food waste from the church and its members. In addition, he envisions the garden becoming a hub for youth and education activities, including church camps and Vacation Bible School. He would like to see it used as a natural backdrop for community-wide gardening and cooking classes and an annual potluck harvest festival.
Stutzman admits the project has been intense. “My goal is to step away from it in three or four years, and then have another garden member or someone else from the church step into the role of president of the garden board,” he said.
But in the meantime, he said the garden has fulfilled what he hoped to accomplish, increasing access to fresh food, cultivating new relationships and getting the church more engaged with the surrounding community.
“Even in an urban environment, we still don’t have a lot of interaction. It’s hard to meet people,” he said. “This is one way to plug in. Since I started this project, I’ve talked to more people in the community and in the church than I had in the previous four years.”